Once you have taken deep breaths and grown accustomed to the glorious environment, this is where the game can become a little daunting for those not used to the Elder Scrolls premise. From this moment, you truly appreciate how large Oblivion is. You currently have one quest from the Emperor, but other than that, the world is truly yours to investigate. Cities, ruined castles, temples, mines, forests, caves... all exist for you to explore. Some players will thrive in the knowledge that they don't have to abide by a set storyline and can do pretty much want they want to. However, some players may be a little freaked out with the openness and crave for some linearity. Thankfully, this is possible, as players can dive straight into the main quest or gain tasks from the various guilds and factions. Although this isn't necessary true linear game play as you have to locate these mission by yourself, it still gives you sense of direction and focus.
Questing is probably the main focus of any RPG. In previous Elder Scrolls games, this often was a complete nightmare as quests regularly didn't make sense or contain any directions on where you needed to go. Plus the dungeons tended to be so large that by the time you found what you were looking for, you had given up the will to live. Bethesda has made questing so much easier in Oblivion. Firstly, the quest log is really well laid out. It's clear, concise and the progress and goals for each mission are easily accessible. Secondly, and most importantly, the map now contains way-points, meaning you actually know where you have to go – hurrah! No more wandering about aimlessly, frustratingly swearing at the monitor. What makes this even better is that fast travel has been re-introduced allowing you to transport to the places you have already visited – double hurrah! This makes us very happy.
The actual quests are numerous and incredibly varied. They are obtained in many ways; they can be given from guilds and factions, read in books, prised out of NPCs by your persuasion skills or simply overheard in the pub while having a drink. So far every quest SPOnG has tried possesses a well thought through storyline with unsuspecting twists, confrontations, and moments of pure genius that make everything worthwhile.
Our favourite to date involved rescuing an artist who had been transported into one of his pictures. Upon touching the canvas, your character is also transported to a 'painted world' where the environment is constructed as if drawn using a paint brush. The sky is covered with strokes of blue, orange and yellow; the trees, dots of green mixed with brown; the painted trolls dashes of every possible colour. A particularly great touch to this mission is that you can use turpentine to poison your weapon to do more damage to the painted trolls. Genius.
This leads nicely onto fighting; another staple part of any RPG. Combat has always been a hit and miss affair in the Elder Scrolls, with no skill really being needed, just a lot of mouse and keyboard bashing. No more. The fighting in Oblivion is excellent! It's very similar to that of Condemned, where you can block, hack in a number of directions and perform special moves. The pace of any combat situation is frenetic which makes it very exciting and enjoyable, particularly when your axe connects with a bandit and sends him flying through the air! Sure, at times it can be too manic and a little hard to control when in dark or cramped environments, or if you are fighting alongside friendly NPCs. But for us, these are minor issues and it’s real fun to swing away. What we want now is to have damage that fits to where you hit the NPC. Decapitation and loss of limbs would also be cool.
